Adopt a United Hatzalah Medic

Daniel Klughaft

Responder Level: EMT and Medical Clown

City: Ramat Gan

About Daniel Klughaft

Daniel, works for a company that develops educational programs for schools, is a father of 6 and resident of Ramat Gan. Daniel’s job as a sales representative keeps him on the road constantly, which enables him to respond to medical emergencies in many different regions and in record time. Daniel is a top notch medic with close to 20 years of experience. In additional to saving countless lives with his finely honed medical skills, he also uses another one of his talents to help people in distress, “clowning around”. Daniel is actually a trained medical clown and he is quite adept at in cheering up children in hospitals or on home visits. So dedicated is he to this endeavor, that he always keeps his clown outfit right next to his medical kit in his ambucycle, “just in case”.

Here is one such case. Daniel received a call about a 7 year-old girl who had swallowed a 2 shekel coin (about the size of a nickel). He was the first medical responder on scene, and upon entering the home he was met by panicked shrieking. The girl’s mother was completely hysterical and the young girl was crying uncontrollably (possibly due to her mother’s hysteria, more than by the coin she had swallowed). After quickly assessing that the girl’s color was fine and that she was breathing unhindered, Daniel turned around, ran outside to his ambucycle and put on his clown outfit. One minute later he re-entered the apartment and the “shock” of seeing a full dressed clown (with United Hatzalah vest), caused everyone in the room, (mother and daughter included) to go quiet. The cheerful clown turned on his charm, wit and humor and seconds later he was talking (and examining) the now calm girl. Seeing this, the mother also calmed down. The girl complained of feeling a lump in her throat and Daniel checked the girl’s airway, finding it clear. He took vital signs, monitored her condition and playfully cheered up both mother and daughter. They all had a good laugh watching the faces of the ambulance crew (who arrived 8 minutes later) when they first saw the colorful and jolly United Hatzalah medic. The mother was hard pressed for words to describe her gratitude to Daniel for his humorous and creatively effective “treatment”.